Six-for-Six: Ryan Blaney continues trend of different winners
Ryan Blaney spoiled Kyle Larson’s dominant run in the Folds of Honor QT 500 Sunday to capture his first checkered flag of the 2021 Cup Series season.
Blaney made the race-winning pass on race-leader Kyle Larson at Atlanta Motor Speedway with nine laps to go, earning his fifth career win in NASCAR’s top series.
“Gosh, we had a great long run car all day,” Blaney said. “It took us a little bit to get going.
“I was pretty free all day, so we made a really good change to tighten me up where I needed it and it looked like Kyle was getting loose and I’m happy it worked in our favor that there was a couple long runs at the end that kind of let us get there.”
Larson led the most laps, being out front for 269 of the 325 circuits.
“Hate to lead a lot of laps and lose, but we had a really good car that we brought to the track,” Larson said. “Our HendrickCars.com Chevy was fast there for a long time. I don’t really know; I don’t know if we got that much worse or he just got way better.”
Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch rounded out the Top-5 finishers.
THROUGH THE FIELD
Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, William Byron, Martin Truex Jr. and defending-race winner Kevin Harvick rounded out the Top-10 finishers
Matt DiBenedetto picked up his highest finish of the 2021 campaign in 11th.
Daytona 500 champion finished 19th, one lap down.
Defending series champion Chase Elliott finished 38th, out of the race, with engine issues.
Kurt Busch finished last (39th) after a lap 113 crash.
OUTLOOK
The next scheduled Cup Series race is the Bristol Dirt Race next Sunday, March 28 (FOX).
SOURCES
Ford Performance
Racing-Reference.info
Team Chevrolet
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Dominic Aragon View All
Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.
From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book "All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story" with racer Geoff Bodine.
Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.
You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.